"I'm starting with the man in the mirror" - Michael Jackson

I'm not sure I recognize the America I grew up in sometimes... I suppose the best way to say it is, loss of civility. I don't know when it started creeping in, but now days there is hardly any respect for anything. For men of the cloth. For teachers. For elected officials. For bosses. And maybe in many cases it's because they didn't seem worthy of the respect, but it's still wrong.
A lot of it seemed to go mainstream with Saturday Night Live; most people just laughed and no one was incensed. But it has grown to an unacceptable amount. This week, the TV show, Family Guy, made fun of Sarah Palin's child with Down Syndrome. This is so disgusting... Some people hate her so much that they have resorted to attacking her children - first the older ones, and now the baby. Is THIS what we've come to?! Hate, hate, hate because we don't agree with someone? Aren't we free to believe as we wish in America?
When I was young, it was clearly taught to me, that in our country you are free to do whatever you wish until it infringes on someone else's rights. It's that last part that's the reason we have one lawyer for every five people here in America... But CLEARLY the line has been crossed in these disgusting, mean, hateful rants. And I'm talking about both sides of any issue. Each of us is responsible for saying something when the line is crossed. That means don't laugh in order to be accepted if these kinds of things are said around you. Or write the TV network to complain. They say one letter represents 1,000 people to the media. We CAN do something. The power of One. It starts with us...